Computer chip giant Intel is to enter the consumer electronics market for the first time with a chip specifically designed to power cheaper, better flat-panel TV displays.
Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini told the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday that his company’s new liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) chips would yield displays priced below $2000 and provide crisper images than rival technologies. These include the digital light processors (DLP) pioneered by Texas Instruments – those displays sell for between $3000 and $5000.
Philips, Sony, Mitsubishi and Toshiba are already selling flat panel LCOS displays that are cheaper than DLP equivalents. But Kevin Cornelius, display technologies manager at Intel, says TVs with Intel chips will have crisper images. This is because the Intel chips are 100 per cent digital, whereas most LCOS technologies still control the liquid crystals using analogue voltages, which are more difficult to produce accurately.
Analysts say Intel’s position as the world’s largest chip producer makes its entry into the market significant.
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“There are currently thousands of TVs with this technology, but Intel will have an interest in producing millions,” says Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry analyst at The Envisioneering Group in Seaford, New York. “Intel coming into this is justification that we are on the right track.”
Blurred lines
Furthermore, Intel’s entry into consumer electronics reinforces the convergence of the PC and home entertainment systems. “The lines are blurring,” Otellini said. The trend is being driven by the increasingly digital nature of entertainment media and the ability to connect devices wirelessly.
In another move highlighting the trend, Microsoft’s Bill Gates unveiled software on Wednesday that will allow TVs to display content from PCs and allows users to use a remote control to navigate music files, digital photos and other stored media.
“The home is changing from a technology standpoint, and Intel has recognised that where there is change, there is opportunity,” says Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media, a digital consulting firm in Norwalk, Connecticut. “LCOS is a hot segment right now. There is more demand than supply.”
Micro-projection
LCOS is a “micro-projection” technology. It is cheaper than earlier direct-view technologies, such as plasma and liquid crystal, because it requires only a tiny amount of optical-quality glass.
An LCOS image is created on a one-inch chip by individually controlling millions of tiny pixels. The image is then projected on to the much larger display surface with a device called a light engine. With direct-view technologies the image must be created at the actual size that it is viewed, requiring much more optical quality glass. Direct-view TVs cost between $6000 and $10,000.
The first micro-projection technology was DLP. These use arrays of micro-mirrors that tilt to control how much light is reflected. Higher resolution can be achieved by adding more mirrors. But, because the mirrors cannot easily be manipulated below a minimum size, the chip must get bigger. This then requires a bigger lens, meaning a more expensive product.
Molecular twist
LCOS does not suffer this problem and in 2003 demand for LCOS chips made by companies including Hitachi, Philips and Sony outstripped supply. Instead of reflection, these chips use refraction to create varying grayscale and therefore avoid the need for moving parts.
An LCOS chip consists of a layer of silicon transistors that control the voltages in a second layer of transistors. The second layer of transistors sits next to a layer of liquid crystals, molecules that twist in response to a change in voltage.
This twisting controls the refraction of the light and generates the grayscale variation. Higher resolution is achieved by using a smaller area of liquid crystal per pixel, meaning the chip stays the same size.
